"When people ask me what has happened in my long lifetime I do not refer them to the newspaper files and to the authorities, but to [Sinclair"s] novels." -- George Bernard Shaw This is the novel that Upton Sinclair used to show horrific practices in the meatpacking industry in the first part of the twentieth century. Like most of Sinclair, the book ultimately becomes a paen to socialism. But the man could write, whatever his politics were, and ewww!, the meatpackers were up to no damn good at all anyway. Highly recommended.